In the marketing of jewelry, a retailer is sometimes required to balance the volume of sales provided by greater public access to the merchandise and the loss of merchandise from pilfering, which is inherent in providing such public access. Pilfer-resistant display devices for rings, eyeglasses, and other accessories have been available for years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 672,561 describes a show tray for finger rings which prevents the rings from being taken surreptitiously. Related devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,253; 4,350,249; 3,900,060; 3,123,208; and 1,907,681. These devices remove some aspect of public access to the merchandise by either confining the merchandise to a secured display limited in size and/or by requiring assistance from a salesperson to inspect or wear the merchandise. The securing mechanism for even more recent designs of pilfer-resistant display devices, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,253, typically require disengagement by a salesperson to allow removal of the merchandise from the display for inspection. Limitations on public access can be compensated for by increased investment in equipment (displays) or personnel (salespersons). The increased investment and cost necessary in utilizing conventional pilfer-resistant display devices for the sale of jewelry in high volume are typically-impractical. It is desirable to provide a pilfer-resistant ring display which is inexpensive to produce and does not place an additional burden on sales personnel and, therefore, practical for use in high volume sales.
In addition, the loss of finger rings to pilfering presents a unique problem when the rings are displayed in individual boxes. The loss of rings to pilfering is much higher than that of earrings and necklaces due to the relative ease in removing the ring from individual display boxes. There is also a unique aspect to the problem palming of finger rings from individual display boxes in that the loss may go undetected where the individual ring box remains closed. The theft may be first discovered by a customer, either before or after purchase, which taxes a retailer's goodwill. This is not a problem when earrings and necklaces are stolen, since they are typically taken with the display box they are in. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a pilfer-resistant ring box which prevents or reduces the theft of the rings alone, requiring the theft of the ring box with the ring so that retailers can detect the loss more easily, and such thefts will not affect customer relations by leaving empty ring boxes on display.